


Shadowed Heart

by BeatlessMelody



Category: Persona 5
Genre: (Mostly relying on the hallucinatory stuff though), (So is Akechi, Akechi is just very not doing good with his recovery from yknow, Akechi lives AU, And poor Robin Hood didn't stand a damn chance against Loki's control, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, LOTS of body image stuff, Loki is a POS, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Not when Akechi gave his control up willingly, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Violence, and Akira is unfortuntely lovestruck still, and almost dying, but he doesnt quite realize that), psychotic akechi, turning himself psychotic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 07:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14208303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeatlessMelody/pseuds/BeatlessMelody
Summary: It had been a week since Akechi had woken up from what was supposed to be his tomb.But the things he had done in the Palace had followed him home.





	Shadowed Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [princethestripper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/princethestripper/gifts).



> ANGELA ily <3

Ragged breathing pulled from his lips, each exhale accented with sharp laughter. Spirals seemed to twist and move on his skin as if they were alive. And Akechi was mesmerized by the snakes twisting around his knuckles as he clenched his fist. His vision seemed to buzz with static, the ground swayed under his feet. And then there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

 

The first day he had awoken he was bloody, sore, and lost. Loki was only a whisper in his mind, then. A warning of what was to come that he hadn’t listened to. Instead, he picked himself up, caught the next subway and went back to his apartment to lick his own wounds. The vaguely voice-like buzzing in his hearing screamed Robin Hood; but he could hear nothing within the white noise that night. If only he had.

 

The second day, he found them again. Sitting together in the café, laughing without a care. Jealous rage stabbed, and black spirals swirled to the tune of Loki’s laughter.

 

He kept walking.

* * *

 

The third day pained wracked his frame. Forcing Akechi to curl in upon himself and be unable to do anything but watch black blood rush through his veins, escape where fingernails had more than dented skin. He lost consciousness many times that day. And thought he heard someone’s crying piercing his dreams.

* * *

 

He didn’t remember the next two days. Except for the tortured crying, and his own prayers to a God he had no reason to believe in.

* * *

 

By the sixth day, the pain was gone, and the spirals had taken its place. They spread like a disease. Covering his body within hours until he was something unrecognizable. The white noise punctuating his hearing had taken the form of voices. Whispers of destruction, of tearing God from His throne and taking it for himself. It told him of a throne of gold, and a crown of thorns. It told him of his father, dead at his feet, and the Thieves begging him for a second chance that would be answered with their stiff bodies being used as a warning.

 

Everything was fine when he looked in a mirror. And he couldn’t help but wonder if he was going crazy.

 

He wished he hadn’t been right.

* * *

 

A week, and Akechi only grew worse. 

 

An encounter with Akira led to the black ichor taking over.

He left the alley with blood on his knuckles, and Akira’s torn expression haunting the back of his eyelids for hours.

 

He was a God in a mortals body. He would turn the world to dust and rebuild his vision on the ruins.

 

He didn’t hear Robin Hood anymore. But when he allowed himself, he could feel the Persona mourning. He did not linger on it. _Could_ not linger on it.

 

He did not look in the mirror before punching his fist through it. He did not pick it up when it landed sideways on the floor; shards on glass glittering like red diamonds.

* * *

 

Which all led to now. Where Akechi was curled on the floor with talons protruding from his fingers. The spirals seemed to grin as they curled tighter around his body, choking him, binding him to this place. The mirror told the story of a boy who hadn’t eaten, who was pale and thin - and who was alone.

 

A pounding noise drew Akechi’s mind to the present and out of the constraints. He did not get up to see who was at the door. He did not react when the lock was picked, and footsteps drew towards him.

 

He was God, but he could not breathe.

 

“ _Akechi_?”

 

He would know that voice anywhere. No matter how he had tried to force it from his mind.

He did not reply, but the constraint loosened around his throat.

 

 _Akira_ , he wanted to say, _Akira help me. Akira save me. Akira do_ **_something_ ** _._ But instead, he said nothing.

* * *

 

“You really got yourself into a mess, huh? You _are_ a mess, actually.” Akira’s words were as gentle as the hands that hoisted Akechi’s shaky body to his feet. A hand brushed knotty hair back from Akechi’s face, pausing briefly on his cheek. He did not lean into it, didn’t move a muscle no matter how he wanted to. Dark eyes stared blankly at the swirling, vaguely humanoid mass looming over Akira’s shoulder, and he did not move.

 

“Christ, dude.” Was all Akira muttered after a brief silence, hands soft as they pushed Akechi towards the bed to sit. And so he did. Only vaguely aware of Akira’s body leaving his line of sight.

 

The mass was hissing. Hunched over, it’s claws dug into the floor. It leapt into the air in a graceful, deadly arch towards him. And Akechi did not move. But it never hit. Disintegrating as Akira stepped in front of him, pushing a glass of water into Akechi’s hand.

 

He drank without thought, suddenly and overwhelmingly aware of how dry his throat was.

 

“Thank you.” The water hadn’t done a thing for the crack to his voice when Akechi spoke. Meeting Akira’s eyes for the first time since the other had gotten here. He didn’t flinch away from the softness in Akira’s gaze.

 

Instead, he took a deep breath, and allowed his lungs to be freed from the spirals binding them.

 

“Well, obviously you’re not gonna take care of yourself.” It was meant to tease, Akechi knew that, but it didn’t seem right to respond as he should of. With a quip of his own and an easy smile. He looked down instead, feeling the bed shift as Akira sat beside him.

 

Their legs were pressed flush together; and Akechi watched as the spirals retreated from his knuckles.

 

He couldn’t feel the mourning anymore. Only an anxious buzz, and a barely contained anger that lapped at the edges of his mind.

* * *

 

They didn’t talk, but they didn’t need to. Akechi had a shower, cleaning the remaining traces of spirals off of his skin, and had exited the warm steam to the scent of curry lingering heavy in the air.

 

The hunger twisted his stomach, and he ate far more than his share. Akira didn’t seem to mind.

 

When sleep pulled at Akechi’s eyes; Akira only pulled him to the bed. Running his thumb gently along Akechi’s knuckles until he fell into a deep sleep for the first time in a week.

 

It was only after Akira could be sure that the other was fast asleep, that the whisper of “I love you.” breached the stale air. But what Akechi didn’t know, couldn’t hurt him.

**Author's Note:**

> Btw I'm not just brushing off the entirety of the side effects of turning yourself psychotic w this ending! Akira being there certainly did HELP and push Loki's hold on Akechi's mind BACK, but it's not something that just goes away all at once. I probably won't write for this again, but Akechi most likely has symptoms and relapses for months after! It's just the severity that is shifted


End file.
